Photodissociation of oriented HXeI molecules in the gas phase

We report the first production of the molecule HXeI, which is bound by ioni c forces, in the gas phase. The molecule is generated by the photodissociat ion of HI molecules on a large Xe-n cluster and is identified by detecting the asymmetric distribution of the H atom fragments of the oriented HXeI. T he orientation is achieved in a combined pulsed laser and weak electrostati c field making use of the large anisotropy in the polarizability and the la rge dipole moment of this molecule. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.